I have been wanting a small diameter snare for a while and finally pulled the trigger on a used Yamaha Musashi on ebay for $145. It is in great condition other than needing new heads. Right now it has stock “made by Remo” Yamaha heads that are pretty beaten up. It has fairly new looking Puresound Custom 16 strand wires which I was happy to see.

Although the batter head is really dead, I can tell the drum likes to be tuned high. However I want to try to get a decent tone with medium tuning and use it as my main snare in small gigs. Then if I want to, I can always crank it up and use it as a side snare in bigger set ups. My regular batter choice for bigger snares is coated Ambassador, but I don't think it is going to work for this snare. It is oak and has a lot of bright ring. I need a head to tame the ring and allow a warm tone. I realize it is not going to sound like a Supra with any kind of head or tuning, but I want to pull the warmest/deepest tone it can possibly give out of it.

Any recommendations on what type of heads I should go with on both batter and reso sides? Brand does not matter. Thanks.

I have the 13x6.5 Musashi and really like it with remo vintage emperor heads, not sure if the 12 is big enough for a main snare unless your doing drum and bass type stuff but Musashi's tune well throughout their range, they just go out of tune faster on lower tunings. Great drum, you'll be happy with it.

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Thanks, Andy. Good to hear positive things about Musashi. My first thought was an Emperor or similar rather than all the dry/muffled type of heads. Vintage Emp. will be on the top of my list to try. I can always use a little moongel to tame the ringing if necessary.

You might be right about the 12" snare being a stretch as a main snare. If I can't make it work, I can still use it for several different purposes.

I'm currently using a 5x12 as my main snare. I have a Evans Genera Dry on the batter and an Evans Hazy 300 on the bottom. I sometimes drop a small square of tape on the batter to tamp down ring, or if I want to fatten it up I'll drop a studio ring on there. Enjoy your new snare!

Al, thank you for sharing your head choices and dampening tips. Interesting to hear that your main snare is 12". I won't give up on the idea of making mine work as a main snare on select gigs.

With a 6x12, your additional inch of depth allows it to be a little fatter than most 12" snares, so don't give up on it. I love mine, because as a smaller dude, it allows me to play more comfortably than having to straddle a 14". It also sounds fantastic with my 13" hats.

I have a video on youtube of 7 different heads on my 13" musahi, it is titled something like snare head shootout, search for that. user is zerosoma33.

anyways the short answer is that the musashi takes diff heads ver well its all up to ur preference. I prefer the Remo Vintage A or Evans R C Power Dot

I have just watched your video. Good stuff. It shows that different options can work on a Musashi. I like my drums wide open but in this case a piece of moongel or a studio ring might come in handy. I probably would not use anything live, but for practice, a bit of dampening will be good.

Harry, based on you and Al's input I will give Genera Dry a try. I plan to get 2 or 3 heads to make sure I find the right one for me. So far I have Genera Dry, Vintage Emperor and Evans R C Power Dot on my list.

I appreciate everyone's input. I am excited about experimenting with this snare to dial it in to my taste!!!

I have just watched your video. Good stuff. It shows that different options can work on a Musashi. I like my drums wide open but in this case a piece of moongel or a studio ring might come in handy. I probably would not use anything live, but for practice, a bit of dampening will be good.

Harry, based on you and Al's input I will give Genera Dry a try. I plan to get 2 or 3 heads to make sure I find the right one for me. So far I have Genera Dry, Vintage Emperor and Evans R C Power Dot on my list.

I appreciate everyone's input. I am excited about experimenting with this snare to dial it in to my taste!!!

Glad you liked the video. If you are considering the Vintage E, let me recommend you the Vintage A. it is still a 2-ply head, 10 mil and 3 mil, but is much more open and sweet.

Glad you liked the video. If you are considering the Vintage E, let me recommend you the Vintage A. it is still a 2-ply head, 10 mil and 3 mil, but is much more open and sweet.

I always assumed Vintage A was a variation of Ambassador and therefore single ply. Sounds like something I would want to try on my 14" snares as well as on the Musashi.

Quote:

Originally Posted by alparrott

One more you might want to try is the coated G Plus. Love those heads.

I'm not familiar with it. I will go on Evans site and look it up. Thanks.

Now I have several good suggestions to try. I will try to pare it down to 2 to buy and experiment with. My first inclination was to get the darkest/driest head I could find to compensate for how bright and ringy the snare is. But I think any quality head with a sweet tone should be fine. I can deal with the excess overtones via moongel or a studio ring.

I play 'Vintage A' heads on my 14" Guru Oak snare. Before I had the Guru, I played a 13" Musashi that I also used a 'Vintage A' head on. They're great heads. Two-ply with a very thin secondary ply. Great sensitivity, good tuning range and just dry enough to take the edge off yet open enough to let it cut and ring a little.

I recommend them very highly. I played straightforward Ambassadors for years but I've been converted. Hopefully I can find another one when it comes to changing the snare head.

I play 'Vintage A' heads on my 14" Guru Oak snare. Before I had the Guru, I played a 13" Musashi that I also used a 'Vintage A' head on. They're great heads. Two-ply with a very thin secondary ply. Great sensitivity, good tuning range and just dry enough to take the edge off yet open enough to let it cut and ring a little.

I recommend them very highly. I played straightforward Ambassadors for years but I've been converted. Hopefully I can find another one when it comes to changing the snare head.

Yes, I am very intrigued by them now that guys have made me aware of what they are. As I said earlier, it sounds like a head I would like on my "full size" snares, too. By the way, my other snares are a maple 14x5 Taye, and a 14x6.5 Pearl Ian Paice Signature.

The Remo Vintage A is two plies 5&7, just like the Aquarian Super-2. The only difference being the quality of the latter :). I have played both, and the Vintage A seemed very stiff and dead. The Super-2 is a killer choice for getting the best out of one and two ply heads, I use them on all my tom batters, and the coating is still looking great. Throw one of those in the mix if you can.

The Remo Vintage A is two plies 5&7, just like the Aquarian Super-2. The only difference being the quality of the latter :). I have played both, and the Vintage A seemed very stiff and dead. The Super-2 is a killer choice for getting the best out of one and two ply heads, I use them on all my tom batters, and the coating is still looking great. Throw one of those in the mix if you can.

The coating is starting to wear on my Vintage A (it's been on there since March and it's had a hard life) so I obviously love the quality of the Remo head but I know they are sometimes inconsistent; even though I've never had a problem personally in ten years.

The next time I change the heads on my kit, I'm seriously thinking about going all-Aquarian. The Modern Vintage series are right up my street on the toms (thanks again, Andy - good call) and my only concern was finding a comparable snare head. Although I'm not too fussed about everything matching (I do like my toms to match, mind) the Super 2 looks like a good option.

I own 12x6 and 10x6 Yamaha Musashis. Have tried a lot of different heads, but found myself most satisfied with Evans Onyx Batter and Evans Hazy 200 resonant. I tune batter head a bit higher than resonant and tune my snares high mostly, but this heads combo works well for medium tuning too. The other well-working batter heads were G2 coated (a bit darker and less sharp attack then Onyx) and EC coated (made a good woody tone). Hope it will help you.